Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
“Hell in a Very
Small Place”
Note: Events in Kabul could make this column obsolete before
its publication, or even before it is finished.
There are only ten, maybe fifteen Americans – I am one of
them - who do not know how to evacuate from Kabul the thousands of Americans,
allies, and the many people now on a Taliban death list because they worked as receptionists
or cleaners or area supervisors for any of the many nations who had charities,
businesses, investments, or military services in Afghanistan.
A comparison is never exact; if it were it
would be the thing itself and not a comparison. That said, the airport in Kabul
appears to be a Dien Bien Phu, meeting the Bernard Fall standard of “Hell in a
very small place.”
The airport is a small area, surrounded
by an army of evil men and crowded with thousands of desperate civilians who
need lots of food, water, shelter, and protection. It is garrisoned by British,
American, Italian, French, Turkish and German soldiers who need lots of food,
water, ammunition, and the other necessities of war. The only way in or out is
by aircraft, and those can be downed on approach or takeoff even by light
weapons (which our government so thoughtfully provided to the wrong people).
The electricity and water can be cut at any time and the backups shelled, and
then the Taliban will have our people and our friends in a position that cannot
be held for more than a few hours.
A question is why the Taliban are
waiting. Are they secretly negotiating with London and Washington for huge
payoffs? Presumably they are also putting their armor and artillery (again, which
our government so thoughtfully gave them) into position along with assault
formations, possibly coordinated by efficient, ruthless Chinese Red Army
liaison officers.
But maybe the Chinese aren’t involved –
the fellows from the hills who were dismissed by our leaders as disorganized seventh-century
tribal warriors turned out to be pretty darned organized after all. Many of
them can’t read, write, or think critically, but they are excellent with
electronics and the best and latest weapons (and you paid for all that stuff).
By the way, when you get up tomorrow
morning and coax your old car’s engine into turning over so you can go to work,
think about all the Taliban swelling around Kabul in all those expensive Hummers
your work bought for them.
Why all this is happening is to me
unknown. I know only that a great many
young American soldiers and those of other countries have been left with a mess
made by our leader-class who know more about partying than they do about
history. While the tailored suits of Merovingians
and the tailored uniforms of courtier-generals are positioned for Bagdad-Bob
press briefings in D.C., our young enlisted women and men, some cranky old
NCOs, and maybe a grey-haired major or two long ago passed over for promotion
are in the dust in Kabul sorting out the mess. Their uniforms aren’t pretty,
what with the blood and dirt and heat, but maybe they won’t be written up for
being non-reg.
When this is all over there will be more medals and commendations
handed out along the halls of the Pentagon than will be awarded to real
soldiers.
But, hey, who needs to know history,
right? It’s one of those useless liberal arts. All we need to do is chant “Learn. To.
Code.” over
and over. Well,
we learned to code, all right, but the products of all that coding have been
given to the Taliban and their new Red Army pals.
What will happen this week in Kabul? And
who will be left behind?
Massacre of British Army in Afghanistan in 1842
(thoughtco.com)
The Second Anglo-Afghan War in the Late 1870s
(thoughtco.com)
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | Summary & Facts |
Britannica
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